Fire rated pocket doors

[AD1]

I'm looking at a double pocket door system for my lounge but due to the  doorway joining the hallway with vaulted ceiling these need to be FD30. 

 

The fire rated pocket door system I've found are a bit pricey and seem to be exactly the same with intumescent strips. 

 

Has anyone found a cheaper/alternate solution to getting pocket doors passed building regs?

 

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[ETC]

Who’s asked for the fire doors? Can you post a plan?

[Mike]

3 hours ago, AD1 said:

Has anyone found a cheaper/alternate solution to getting pocket doors passed building regs?

Standard opening doors?

 

I can see the visual appeal of pocket doors, but they do present clearing, servicing, repair and noise issues. I've got one in the room I'm staying in now and it doesn't close properly...

[AD1]

The architect has specified FD30 due to the hallway being a vaulted ceiling over 3 floors. 

 

They're standard 762 doors. 

 

We want to arrange the lounge with two sofas facing each other but concerned the doors will be too close. 

[Dave Jones]

make the hallway narrower and the lounge larger.

[Conor]

We had pocket doors specced in a few places. Didn't I stall any in the end. Make the door in to your living room a single hinged door and push it in to the corner.

[JohnMo]

I thought fire doors had to have a self closure mechanism, can you do that with pocket doors?

[Mr Punter]

16 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

I thought fire doors had to have a self closure mechanism

No, they don't normally in England except for flat entrance doors and (I think) connecting to garages.

[saveasteading]

43 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

a self closure mechanism

In commercial and public buildings.

In houses they sensibly allow that they would be blocked open anyway. More importantly, we know the escape routes from our own houses.

And now Scotland requires interlinked fire alarms so there is early warning.

 

If you wanted self closers then the pocket doors could  perhaps be hung on a slope.

[ETC]

Looks like you have a protected staircase in which case all doors to habitable space need to be fire doors.

[AD1]

Exactly as above, its the only escape route from the upper floors hence the fire doors. 

 

We definitely want the double doors into the lounge and so looking like I'll have to dig deep and buy the fire rated pocket door system. 

 

Any recommendations on brands?

 

Eclisse is the one I have been looking at at nearly £1k excluding any doors! 

 

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[Russdl]

@AD1 We used Portman frames, almost to ceiling height. Got fire door blanks from Howdens (I think they were around £30 each) and had them sprayed. It all looks very nice. However,
 

The Portman system is expensive and it proved difficult to fit, the pocket is made of what almost looks like wriggly tin and when you screw the plasterboard to it, it’s almost impossible to not distort the frame making the pocket narrower in the middle and a bit of a squeeze to get the door in. In fact for us it was so much of a squeeze that we had to, er, re-engineer the whole pocket to make it a wee bit wider. This meant the intumescent strip either side of the blank in the pocket was pointless. We bluffed the inspector by fitting brushes to conceal the gap but he never bothered to look anyway. 
 

Like I suspect with the vast majority of pocket fire doors, they remain open 99% of the time.
 

Another downside to the Portman frames is that once the door blank is in, it’s in for ever, I think with the Eclisse there is a way of getting the blank out after the whole thing is finished? Redecorating the blank for us is not an option which is another good reason to keep them tucked in their pocket pretty much all the time and out of harms way. 

[MG-Wales]

On 31/03/2023 at 19:45, AD1 said:

Exactly as above, its the only escape route from the upper floors hence the fire doors. 

 

We definitely want the double doors into the lounge and so looking like I'll have to dig deep and buy the fire rated pocket door system. 

 

Any recommendations on brands?

 

Eclisse is the one I have been looking at at nearly £1k excluding any doors! 

 

AD

 

 

 

I am resurrecting this thread as I am in the same position as you: pocket door required to be FD30 as part of a protected staircase (3 storey house).

 

What did you go for in the end?

 

I am looking at Rocket Door Frames, however their FD30 frames are (at £410) more than 3 times the price of the normal ones (£145). They also require double plasterboard.

 

Did you find out if it is  possible to buy fire door seals and use them with a standard pocket door frame? How do these seals look like?

 

The absurd thing is that we are in Wales and have mandatory fire suppression system which has already been installed, however the Regs still require the protected staircase. There is a sprinkler head within a metre of the door on each side!